The "Fat" Gene

Here's the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110515/lf_nm_life/us_obesity_genes

Here's my take:

For over ten years, I have been taking classes in Bowen Family System's Theory.  We consider many aspects of life in this class as we discuss this theory and its applications.  One of the central themes we deal with is how to cope with anxiety.

What does this have to do with that Yahoo! story?

Just this--anxiety causes an increase in the amount of cortisol our body produces.  Our bodies basically are designed to deal with anxiety by fight or flight.  When stressed, our adrenal gland secretes cortisol into our system.  In nature, we use the cortisol up by fighting or running.

But what about many of our current lives?  How often do we fight or flight when confronted with stress now a days?  When our jobs cause us anxiety, do we run?  Do we fight our boss?  Nope.  Generally, we sit on it, and the cortisol our bodies produce stays in them. 

And so what happens to our bodies?  What does that cortisol do within us when we are chronically under stress and do not use it up?  Research has shown that it increases our fat content. 

Now, while the finding of the "fat" gene certainly is worth note, what I wonder is the statistic that obesity globally is now increasing.  I have to wonder if the "cause" isn't a world that is increasingly growing more anxious? 

I sense that the U.S. society is increasingly anxious and is becoming more and more emotionally regressed.  (This is Bowen's idea, not my own.)  The slightest things tend to set off emotional firestorms.  The media tends to get us all worked up about rather trivial things.  Many people and institutions play off our fears and concerns and raise them to a level which was unheard of in the past.

Part of the problem, I argue at least, is the access we have to untold quantities of information.  I simply don't believe our brains are capable of handling the amount of news that we have access to worldwide.  And the media intentionally puts the stories out which heighten our sense of fear.   They keep these stories before us 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and our anxieties grow and grow and grow.  Our cortisol levels shoot up, and it has no place to go.

And we see our waistlines expand.

And we fight the epidemic by talking about BMI's and more exercise and healthier eating.

But I tend to wonder if we should concentrate more on lowering our anxiety?  I wonder if we shouldn't spend more time in prayer and meditation and less time watching Fox, CNN, MSNBC and reading internet blogs and stories which are designed to scare the crap out of us or tick us off? I wonder if our waistlines would shrink if we simply tried to lower our fight or flight response?

What if our obesity is less about genetics and more about our anxiety?

Kind of gives new insight into Jesus' teachings to refrain from worry, doesn't it.